steventhfc
See man driving a german whip.
- May 20, 2009
- 2,059
- 818
Excuse the large essay but this was posted by a user on another Spurs forum I use and it was too good not to post here.
My first one of these was about the stadium, with the summer approaching I thought this topic would be appropriate.
Early today I had a little discussion with @spursman18 which motivated me to do my own personal review of the clubs finances, wages in particular. There have been stories floating around the web and this site that Spurs are willing to offer 100k per week wages. Personally I think it's a given that if we're going to pursue some of the players rumored that we would be offering 100k. Anyways, it raised a few questions.
A) Can we afford 100k per week players?
B) What effect would that have on the rest of the squad, pay increases in particular?
One of the negative things about bringing in players that make more than established veterans is that eventually you have to increase those players wages. So I decided to do some estimates based on what I've read about the clubs finances. I just want to make it clear that these are estimates because clubs and players don't have to report salaries it's basically educated guesses. For instance when VDV first signed there was a report about him making 90k, to which he clarified and revealed he was on something around 55K. So basically I'm going off little snippets of information reported in the media.
One thing I do know for sure is our total wage bill which is around £75m annually. With a turnover of £120m 62.5% go to covering our wages in a calendar year. Which for a club our size is decent and it stresses why a new stadium. I don't really want to get into that argument but it had to be said. The last annual report our wages were reported to be £67m, the next report with all the new additions and contract re-negotiations it will show a figure around £75m. As things are right now I think we could comfortably handle a wage bill of £85m, which is around a 8% increase of revenue that goes to players wages. We could afford it but we would be pushing the limit, £70m to £80m is much more comfortable
At this point Levy's words earlier this year come to mind.
“Whilst thіѕ large squad eased ουr progress іn the Champions League, wе shall take up again to look to streamline our squad where appropriate.”
Journalists all across Europe jumped on that statement and interpreted it as Levy saying that Spurs need to sell their best players. Knowing what I do about the clubs finances I don't think we do. What he means is we have a lot of people collecting checks and not contributing much to the team overall. Given the debacle of the January transfer window it wouldn't seem that Levy has much of an issue with large wages. If Aguero would have signed for Spurs he would be on 100k per week. So when you consider that and really look at our wages in detail the picture becomes more clear.
Remember my numbers are not exact but I think I'm close enough.
To my knowledge Modric and Bale are the clubs two top earners. Reading between the lines of the reports after Bale signed his new deal it would suggest he's on par with Modric. Some reports claimed he was making 100k but I think that was shot down and made clear he's 'one' of the clubs top earners. Now Modric has said publicly that his wages are around 70k, he was quite upset when the figure was made public. So he's going to be my benchmark for the top end of our wage scale.
As I stated before bringing in new players that are making 100k would trigger pay increases squad wide. Now this is just my opinion but I don't think it's a given that all our players would immediately get a bump in pay. I singled out 14 that I think would have a case when demanding higher wages from Spurs based on this season.
I'm going to try and keep this as simple as possible and present a wide range of possibilities, mainly because I don't know the specifics. Basically I have 5 categories of weekly pay scale, 75k-65k, 65k-55k, 55k-45k, 45k-35k and 35k-15k. These are the players I think fall into each category that could potentially be due pay increases. Please not that I'm not saying that they'll get them for sure just for arguments sake these are the one who would have a case.
Now I think our two top earners would have an immediate case for their wages to be raised to 100K. That would represent a 42.85% increase in pay. For arguments sake I'm going to assume that percentage of pay increase applies to everyone. Not that it would, some may a larger increases and others no increase. This post is about what we could feasible not what's likely. I put in table format so it's easier to absorb, here's what I came up with.
As you can see a I estimate a maximum increase in overall salary of 15 million dollars. Remember that's giving few players the generous increase of 45%. That would raise our current wage bill to around £90m above the comfortable £85m previously mentioned.
Then you have to factor in the players we would add. If we're talking contracts in the 100k range each players adds another £5.2m to the wage bill. So if we signed both Hulk and Falcao who have been rumored that would mean £10.4m in salary added. Then add increases and that would raise the wage bill to around £100m, which is 83% percent of our turnover not acceptable.
So here's were that Levy quote becomes useful.
“Whilst thіѕ large squad eased ουr progress іn thе Champions League, wе shall take up again to look to streamline our squad where appropriate.”
I made a shortlist of all the players that we could potentially see leave. Please note, I don't want to argue over specific players. While making this list and researching just how much they are getting paid I was genuinely shocked.
All players on that list could be considered either "fringe" or "Available for the right price". When totaled up they account for £33m-£26m of our entire wage bill, which is between 44% - 34%. Whether we sign any marquee players or not that needs to be sorted out. To make weight for two 100k salaries we need to shed £10m worth of players off that list, so a little under a 3rd. Also we should push on streamlining and bringing in young or veteran affordable players.
So to sum up:
A) Can we afford 100k per week players? Yes
B)What effect would that have on the rest of the squad, pay increases in particular? Minimal but changes are necessary.
P.S. No one should listen to 'Arry about money. I've come to the belief that Levy doesn't involve him in the negotiations. I'm not sure he truly knows what we can afford or spend.
My first one of these was about the stadium, with the summer approaching I thought this topic would be appropriate.
Early today I had a little discussion with @spursman18 which motivated me to do my own personal review of the clubs finances, wages in particular. There have been stories floating around the web and this site that Spurs are willing to offer 100k per week wages. Personally I think it's a given that if we're going to pursue some of the players rumored that we would be offering 100k. Anyways, it raised a few questions.
A) Can we afford 100k per week players?
B) What effect would that have on the rest of the squad, pay increases in particular?
One of the negative things about bringing in players that make more than established veterans is that eventually you have to increase those players wages. So I decided to do some estimates based on what I've read about the clubs finances. I just want to make it clear that these are estimates because clubs and players don't have to report salaries it's basically educated guesses. For instance when VDV first signed there was a report about him making 90k, to which he clarified and revealed he was on something around 55K. So basically I'm going off little snippets of information reported in the media.
One thing I do know for sure is our total wage bill which is around £75m annually. With a turnover of £120m 62.5% go to covering our wages in a calendar year. Which for a club our size is decent and it stresses why a new stadium. I don't really want to get into that argument but it had to be said. The last annual report our wages were reported to be £67m, the next report with all the new additions and contract re-negotiations it will show a figure around £75m. As things are right now I think we could comfortably handle a wage bill of £85m, which is around a 8% increase of revenue that goes to players wages. We could afford it but we would be pushing the limit, £70m to £80m is much more comfortable
At this point Levy's words earlier this year come to mind.
“Whilst thіѕ large squad eased ουr progress іn the Champions League, wе shall take up again to look to streamline our squad where appropriate.”
Journalists all across Europe jumped on that statement and interpreted it as Levy saying that Spurs need to sell their best players. Knowing what I do about the clubs finances I don't think we do. What he means is we have a lot of people collecting checks and not contributing much to the team overall. Given the debacle of the January transfer window it wouldn't seem that Levy has much of an issue with large wages. If Aguero would have signed for Spurs he would be on 100k per week. So when you consider that and really look at our wages in detail the picture becomes more clear.
Remember my numbers are not exact but I think I'm close enough.
To my knowledge Modric and Bale are the clubs two top earners. Reading between the lines of the reports after Bale signed his new deal it would suggest he's on par with Modric. Some reports claimed he was making 100k but I think that was shot down and made clear he's 'one' of the clubs top earners. Now Modric has said publicly that his wages are around 70k, he was quite upset when the figure was made public. So he's going to be my benchmark for the top end of our wage scale.
As I stated before bringing in new players that are making 100k would trigger pay increases squad wide. Now this is just my opinion but I don't think it's a given that all our players would immediately get a bump in pay. I singled out 14 that I think would have a case when demanding higher wages from Spurs based on this season.
I'm going to try and keep this as simple as possible and present a wide range of possibilities, mainly because I don't know the specifics. Basically I have 5 categories of weekly pay scale, 75k-65k, 65k-55k, 55k-45k, 45k-35k and 35k-15k. These are the players I think fall into each category that could potentially be due pay increases. Please not that I'm not saying that they'll get them for sure just for arguments sake these are the one who would have a case.
Now I think our two top earners would have an immediate case for their wages to be raised to 100K. That would represent a 42.85% increase in pay. For arguments sake I'm going to assume that percentage of pay increase applies to everyone. Not that it would, some may a larger increases and others no increase. This post is about what we could feasible not what's likely. I put in table format so it's easier to absorb, here's what I came up with.
As you can see a I estimate a maximum increase in overall salary of 15 million dollars. Remember that's giving few players the generous increase of 45%. That would raise our current wage bill to around £90m above the comfortable £85m previously mentioned.
Then you have to factor in the players we would add. If we're talking contracts in the 100k range each players adds another £5.2m to the wage bill. So if we signed both Hulk and Falcao who have been rumored that would mean £10.4m in salary added. Then add increases and that would raise the wage bill to around £100m, which is 83% percent of our turnover not acceptable.
So here's were that Levy quote becomes useful.
“Whilst thіѕ large squad eased ουr progress іn thе Champions League, wе shall take up again to look to streamline our squad where appropriate.”
I made a shortlist of all the players that we could potentially see leave. Please note, I don't want to argue over specific players. While making this list and researching just how much they are getting paid I was genuinely shocked.
All players on that list could be considered either "fringe" or "Available for the right price". When totaled up they account for £33m-£26m of our entire wage bill, which is between 44% - 34%. Whether we sign any marquee players or not that needs to be sorted out. To make weight for two 100k salaries we need to shed £10m worth of players off that list, so a little under a 3rd. Also we should push on streamlining and bringing in young or veteran affordable players.
So to sum up:
A) Can we afford 100k per week players? Yes
B)What effect would that have on the rest of the squad, pay increases in particular? Minimal but changes are necessary.
P.S. No one should listen to 'Arry about money. I've come to the belief that Levy doesn't involve him in the negotiations. I'm not sure he truly knows what we can afford or spend.
